Beach Break
by dutchoven
Summary: Five years ago, Bodie pulls someone from the ocean and it changes his life in a small but significant way. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Beach Break (1/3)**

**Edited: 3/19/12 for awkward phrasing and to remove any accidental comedic effect caused by the BeeGees. **

Someone always came at night. During the summer, the seasonal tourists swarmed the coastal areas in RVs and SUVs filled with bored and rebellious teenagers high on stupidity. It was like a beacon; as soon as the signs went up, NO SWIMMING LIFEGUARD OFF DUTY, DANGER-STRONG CURRENT, they came sneaking over the sand dunes, pilfered beers in hand, giggling and with their minds turned firmly south as they splashed out into the choppy waves. And because they weren't locals, they didn't hear the news, didn't bother to read the bright yellow signs dimmed by dusk that people had died out here before.

It was a full moon tonight. Bodie sucked down the last of his soda under the flickering fluorescent lights in front of the public rest room. He turned and tossed it, basketball-style, into the nearest waste basket. It bounced off the teetering stack of paper bags and discarded Slurpees, skittered off the edge of the concrete slab floor and disappeared into the sandy darkness. Ah well. Bodie stepped off into the sand as well, hands on hips, and watched the glittering starlight effect the moonlight created against the rippling ocean waves. A cool breeze swept by, ruffling his brown hair and cutting through his red lifeguard t-shirt. He checked his watch. 11 p.m. His shift was done hours ago, but he wanted to swing by the beach just one more time before turning in.

He set out at a slow jog, kicking up sand and tufts of dried grass as he passed. The activity helped keep out the night time chill, and gradually he upped his pace as he reached the flatter sand kept moist and compact by the crashing water. Sea foam swirled and splashed into his sneakers; he didn't mind. Most of his life was spent on or around beaches. In nine hours he'd be back on his high chair, sun burning down overhead and sand in his swimming trunks. Wet feet weren't even an inconvenience.

His breath whooshed in and out of his lungs with the steadiness of a metronome. Out of habit, he matched it to the steady rise and fall of his feet. In turn, it seemed his steps matched the rushing ebb and push of the ocean. Bodie ran past the towering silhouette of a 13-floor hotel building, past a grove of palm trees planted by local landscapers, past the boardwalk and onwards into the night, until the only thing he could see and hear was moonlight on water. He jogged until he reached the stretch of beach where the small, somewhat worn-down local summer homes were located. Many of these homes were vacant during the off-season, and prone to neglect as a result. Since they were also some distance from the boardwalk, it kept this part of the beach more private, quiet. The municipality didn't post lifeguards here.

Bodie slowed down, then stopped, huffing and finally starting to feel winded. That's when he heard it—the sounds of frantic splashing and the screams of scared children. He whirled, peering back the way he came, then forward, trying to locate where the sounds were coming from. He didn't see anything. Did he imagine it? He tried to calm down, but his heartbeat, already beating hard, revved with a spike of adrenaline.

"Tee!"

He started, strained his eyes against the gloom, and caught the flash of something sparkly and fluorescent. A little girl with light-up sneakers. Bodie took off, racing towards that flickering beacon. He could hear and see clearer as he drew closer. There was more than one child; at least two small, dark figures peeled away, but the one girl in sneakers remained on the beach, running almost into the waves.

"Tee! Tee! Come back, Tee!" screamed the little girl. She jumped up and down, then whirled to face him as he skidded to a halt beside her.

"Tee's in there!" she gasped and pointed straight out into the water. A harsh crash erupted as a stiff wave smashed against a jutting pile of jagged rocks that extended far into the ocean. Bodie scanned the choppy waves as he kicked his sneakers aside and yanked his shirt off. His eyes swept back and forth. Where was he or she?

There! The shape of a hand waving in the air. He charged, leapt, plunged. The water retreated, dragged him with it. He let it, helping his forward motion along with a dolphin kick until he felt the buoyancy of deeper water. Then he lifted his head above the water and free-styled forward towards the small figure in the water.

"Help!" gasped the child. A girl, he realized. She sounded exhausted. She was also moving swiftly away from him, faster than normal considering she should be trying to swim TO shore, not away. He fought through the waves, cursing himself for being slow, for being tired, when he felt it, felt the water current catch a hold of him. It swirled around his chest and back, seized him and flung him further into open water. He sped towards the foundering girl faster than he ever would have under his own power.

_Rip tide_.

The girl went under the water. Bodie kicked and stroked his arms harder, willing mother nature to carry him as far out as it wanted to, so long as he reached her in time. He reached her last position, but she was nowhere in sight. Deep breath, then he plunged under the water. It was impossible to see; blindly he groped. His lungs strained with the effort of holding his breath until the pressure was almost too much to bear. That was when his fingers brushed against something. He seized it, and burst back up to the surface. He clutched with both hands now, hauling and turning until the girl's head broke past the water as well. Not good. He couldn't tell if she was awake or not. The current was still carrying them away. The sand line had become a blur in the distance.

Bodie wasn't a lifeguard for nothing though. He wrapped his right arm securely around the child's chest under the arms, and with his left hand, began swimming parallel to the shore.

"Come on, stay with me," he called to the limp body in his grasp. "I'm gonna get you home, so stay with me!" He kicked and paddled with a vengeance, until the muscles all up and down his left side ached. He was still stuck in the current. He pushed on, trying to keep parallel. Then as the drag grew less, he began to swim diagonal towards land. Waves surged and crashed around him, filling his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth with salt water. A wad of seaweed whipped across his face, blinding him. Another wave swept into him, and the next thing he knew, he was crashing into the unyielding rock face of the sea breaker.

The impact shuddered through his shoulder into his body and almost dislodged the girl from his grip. Maybe he hit his head too; with the waves and the cold and an unconscious girl slipping from his hands, he could barely think much less keep track of what was happening to himself. Desperately, he grabbed for some kind of handhold. His fingers scraped and slipped off slick stone. He thrashed, grabbed, slipped again, and felt his foot wedge into a rocky crevice. Something raked against his knee, tore it, a sharp slicing sensation. But Bodie ignored it. He used his trapped leg as leverage, and hauled the half-drowned girl in his arms out of the water and up over the top one of the flatter blocks of stone. Then he pulled himself out. He strained and twisted precariously against the barnacle-covered surface until his leg pulled free.

The girl hadn't moved from where he had thrown her. He dragged himself over, rolled her until she faced up. She was completely limp; her head lolled to one side.

"No no no," he muttered. He pulled his legs up under himself- never mind the pain that was starting to burn through his right knee- pressed his hands over the girl's diaphragm and began to push.

It felt different doing compressions on a real body versus the dummies during first aid training. He could feel the hard yet pliable structure of her ribcage, and the girl was so small. He was suddenly terrified of his own body weight, afraid that the power he was channeling into his hands would break her instead of help her.

But he kept pushing. One, two, three, four…. He pushed down until water spurted from the girl's mouth and she gasped and spit and thrashed with newfound vitality.

"Good girl," he mumbled as he rubbed small circles into her back. She kept coughing, until her body shook with the force of it. In the distance, the sounds of sirens pierced the night, steadily growing louder. He imagined he could almost see the swirling red lights of an ambulance over the tops of the sand dunes.

"You're doing all right," he said. He said it as much for himself as for the girl. He was only eighteen years old, but tonight and perhaps for the rest of his life, he could honestly say he was doing all right. _Never forget this,_ he told himself. This is what it feels like to save a life.

Cold, wet, painful. And wonderful.


	2. Chapter 2

**Beach Break (2/3)**

Taye threw her cell phone down with enough force to knock the battery right out of the casing.

"MOOOM! DAAAD!" she howled at the top of her lungs, "WE ARE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW!"

"Hospital? What hospital?" her father called back from somewhere upstairs in a much lower tone of voice.

"Hospital, as in the HOSPITAL where Lil' T is lying, after almost DYING FROM DROWNING!" she shrieked. Loud thumping sounds erupted from upstairs and the mellow pitch of her mother's voice suddenly became audible. Taye haphazardly slapped the pieces of her cell phone back together and scrambled around for her driver's license and sneakers. From the corner of her eye, she noticed one of her nephews poking his head around the corner of the kitchen doorway. Normally irrepressible and uncontrollable, tonight he seemed strangely solemn and quiet. Taye took that as a sign of guilt. At least the little cretin had enough of a conscience to _look_ ashamed. She stabbed a finger at him.

"I will deal with you later," she snapped. "That was your little sister on the line, and she says YOU and Jordan were there when it happened. And you two come running on back for TWENTY minutes and didn't mention a thing?" Her nephew didn't have to defend himself, for out of the blue, her aunt swarmed into the kitchen, massive tote bag slung over her shoulder and beaded sandals slapping the linoleum floor as she hustled with purpose towards the front door.

"Don't you go blaming my son, Taye," she thundered, gold earrings and an armful of bangles jangling like wind chimes. "Little boys panic, terrible thing like that!"

"Oh yeah, panic for TWENTY freakin' minutes while being quiet as a mouse!" she snapped back. Taye didn't care that her family was staying as guests at her aunt's beach lodge. It didn't take a genius or any sort of maturity to have the decency to get help when a family member was drowning.

"Aesha called, didn't she?" her aunt said, trying to deflect the damning accusation.

"Yeah, yeah, the one child of yours who's not spoiled rotten!"

"Hey, hey, Taye, cool it! Let's go! Hospital first!" interrupted her father, who just got downstairs, her mother following on his heels. Their clothes were rumpled and hastily thrown on. They didn't even bother with proper shoes and just jammed their feet into the pile of discarded flip flops lying at the base of the stairwell.

"I'll drive!" announced her aunt. She flourished her key ring and pushed her way into the already crowded foyer until she was blocking the doorway with her considerable bulk.

"Aww, no, you drive like a grandma!" Taye yelled.

"And you don't know where the hospital is!" her aunt snapped back. "You think anyone can fit in that itty bitty thing you call a car? How you goin' get your sister home? Stretch her out on your laps?"

"Abriana, just, let's just go," begged Taye's mother.

"I'll step on it just for you," promised Aunt Abriana. They exited the beach house in a rush. Taye felt every bit of delay, from when her aunt turned back last second to lock the door to when she fumbled to press the button on her key fob that unlocked the passenger doors of the dented, dusty minivan parked in front of the house. The seats, once black, were now an ashy gray color, decorated with a layer of crumbs and sticky stains. Taye sat without looking, heedlessly crushing an open bag of chips under her rear end, and slapped on her seatbelt. And not a moment too soon; her parents had barely sat down before her aunt, true to her word, stepped on the gas, and away they went, careening down the dark street to the main thoroughfare that would lead them to the hospital.

On a good day, Aunt Abriana possessed a casual disregard for traffic rules and posted signs. On a night such as this, after she had been given implicit permission to speed, Taye's aunt's driving could be closer classified as "death-defying" or suicidal. She weaved back and forth between the lanes without checking her mirrors. She blew through four-way stop signs. When stuck behind a sedan in a single lane, she tailgated and stomped the brakes repeatedly to prevent last-second collisions. Taye's head and stomach swam in circles at the way her body was sent jerking back and forth against the seatbelt restraints. If this kept up, she was going to need the hospital just as much as her little sister.

"Abriana," her mother begged, "don't get so close."

"Nonsense, this guy's going way below the speed limit! And this is an emergency! If I don't hurry him up, Lil' T's going to be able to walk home on her own before we get there." Taye's aunt pounded the horn. A warbling honk squirted out of the van. Then her aunt nudged the nose of her van practically on top of the bumper of the gray car in front of them and leaned down heavily on the horn. This time, a deep, sonorous blare erupted from the van. The gray car's brake lights burned bright red.

"_Sheeee-it_!" yelled her aunt, and she stomped on her brakes as well. The seatbelt seized around Taye's torso and practically strangled her as it kept her from faceplanting into the seat in front of her.

"Oh no," her father said suddenly.

"Aw hell," said Aunt Abriana.

Red, white, and blue lights suddenly lit up in a flickering display from the rear window of the car in front of them.

"You…you tailgated an undercover cop?" Taye gasped. She couldn't even express her outrage properly, she was so overwhelmed with the weight of all their bad luck.

"Don't you worry, I'll explain it all to him," her aunt huffed, and popped her seatbelt and door lock.

"Abriana, stay in the car! Don't make this any worse!" boomed Taye's father.

"This is not the ghetto, Tyrel! I can get out of the car if I want to!" In the seat next to her, Taye's mother started crying. It was a disaster, an absolute mess. The fight in the front seats continued, but her aunt stayed inside the car. Meanwhile, the cop took his sweet time getting out of his own car. Taye fretted in her seat, but she didn't dare get out, didn't know the way to walk to the hospital, and didn't want to open her mouth for fear of adding to the hysteria that the rest of her family was generating in the dirty, stifling confines of the van. To top it off, her mother's crying was starting to aggravate her asthma. Each of her sobs was punctuated with a loud gasp for air. Taye grabbed her mom's hand and tried to calm her down.

"Mom, T's in the hospital, she's got doctors and nurses all over the place, okay? So whether we get there right now or in half an hour won't make a difference. They'll prob just make us wait anyway, so waiting out here or waiting in there, there's no difference at all." Her mom nodded vigorously, but only seemed to cry harder. Taye let her head thump back against the headrest and squeezed her eyes shut.

They reached the hospital nearly forty minutes later, spewing blame and fire and brimstone at each other every mile of the way. But once they reached the hospital parking lot, all their vitriol dropped away, their anger spent. Now was the time to find Lil' T. Governed by this unspoken instinct, Taye and her family flew from the van and raced through the automatic sliding doors of the hospital. They tackled the front desk as one unit, then spend off again down the hall where the emergency room was located. There they were forced to slow down until they could catch the attention of another nurse who could direct them to where Lil' T was located. Taye narrowly avoided colliding with a teenager who was slowly hobbling down the hallway in the opposite direction. She swerved around him, but her arm still clipped his crutch, knocking him off balance.

"Sorry!" she called, spinning around just to make sure he didn't fall. He waved, expressing without words that he was all right, keep going. He was tall, with short brown hair and wearing an XXXL one-size-fits-everyone blood donor shirt. Underneath a healthy summer tan, he looked tired.

Taye turned again and hurried after the fast-disappearing figures of her parents. She found everyone clumped around the bed that Lil' T was resting in, smiling with a blanket tucked up to her armpits. Her mother was fussing and checking her sister out from head to toe. Aunt Abriana was bustling back and forth between the bed and her own daughter Aesha, who was quietly perched in the only chair available by the bed. A doctor spoke rapidly to her father: there was a little residual water in her lungs, but other than some bruises, she was fine, healthy, and very lucky. Then he was off to the next patient. Taye squeezed herself next to the already crowded bedside.

"Sorry, mom," Lil' T was in the middle of saying.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" snapped Taye. "If you tell mom some crap about wantin' to see the stars at night, I'm gonna smack you. Next time you sneak off, do it after you learn how to swim."

"I KNOW how to swim!"

"Yeah, that's why we're here now. What happened? Aesha fish you out?"

"No way, she was faaaar out," Aesha said. "A guy jumped in and saved her. He was over there. " She pointed towards a bed which now had an elderly woman on it. "He was bleeding a lot."

Taye's father grabbed the next nurse that passed by.

"Excuse me, do you know what happened to the young man who saved my daughter?"

"Oh, do you mean Bodie? He's a life guard in the area. He needed stitches but he's already been released. He left a few minutes ago …" Taye took off running before the nurse finished her sentence.

"Bodie? Bodie?" she asked every youngish male she encountered. Blank stares, all of them. She moved on. On a hunch, she figured it must be the guy she bumped into on the way in. On foot, he couldn't have gone far, but if someone came to pick him up, she would be out of luck. She ran out the front entrance anyway.

And there he was. He had just thrown his crutch into the backseat of a car, and was in the process of leveraging himself in.

"Bodie!" He jerked and hopped halfway around to see who was calling his name. As Taye drew near, she could see a thick bandage wound around his right knee. He also sported a shiner on his right cheekbone, on top of whatever cuts and bruises Taye imagined he must have. She didn't waste any time. She got right up in front of him and slapped a hand on the roof of the car. Startled, he tried to back up but only ended up hitting the inside of the open car door.

"You. Saved my sister." Taye stuck a finger into his chest. He stared at her, mouth hanging open just a little, completely flummoxed. It was kind of adorable, actually. She pulled a crumpled takeout menu from her pocket, and wrote down her aunt's address, tomorrow's date, a time, and her phone number. She waved it under his nose, which he took it out of reflex. Then Taye grabbed him around the shoulders, and assisted him into the car whether he needed her help or not.

"Uhm…" he started to say, but she talked right on top as if she didn't hear him.

"Now you come to our place tomorrow, that time and address, y'hear? We gotta thank you, and no, not _that _way," Taye said, punctuating the last part of her sentence with a glare at the driver, whose smile she could see glistening even from her angle. "Be there or we'll hunt you down. Got it? You need a ride, gimme a ring." Bodie nodded mutely.

"Good, see you then." She closed the door and backed away. A few moments of hesitation, then the car drove off, the life guard's bewildered expression still visible to her through the passenger window. He had a cute profile. With that parting thought, Taye went back into the hospital to join her family.


	3. Chapter 3

**Beach Break (3/3)**

"This it?" asked Theo as he craned his head to try to spot the faded numbers painted against the curb under a sun and wind-beaten pale blue mailbox. Bodie peered dubiously out his side of the window as well. Lining both sides of the street were cars of all makes and years. There was a sweet '73 Dodge Charger parked nose to bumper against a boxy green hybrid which in turn was riding the backend of a oversized Cadillac of the type his grandmother might drive if she could still see past her cataracts and trifocals. The front door of the summer home behind the blue mailbox was open, and through the dented screen door, he could hear the thrumming bass of party music fighting with the upraised voices of dozens of people shouting and talking at once. Through the gaping holes in the slatted wood fence marking the perimeter of the home's land plot, he could see a bigger crowded shifting back and forth around tables, tiki lights, and an outdoor grill.

"Yeah, must be," Bodie said, despite sounding less than convinced. He snapped his seatbelt off, but he didn't get out right away. He gave the open doorway another long look. Next to him, his friend rolled his eyes and drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.

"Yo, time's a wastin'. In or out, I don't care, but I got a date in less than an hour."

Bodie scrubbed at his hair in frustration. He didn't know anyone there. What on earth possessed him to think this was a good idea? He didn't want any thanks. He was just doing his job. He should have just disappeared into the distance, never to be seen again, a nameless, faceless benefactor. And yet, here he was. Now that he was right in front of the place, it seemed so stupid to not show his face. But his butt remained planted in his friend's idling car while inside he was experiencing something that felt suspiciously like stage fright.

To his left, he heard Theo start to chuckle, then laugh out right.

"Didn't think you'd be her type," he said slyly.

"What?" Bodie asked, mystified. A sharp knocking against the passenger-side window almost made him jump out of his skin. Bodie whirled in his seat. Just a few inches away was the gorgeous black girl from the hospital, bent over, hand shading her face as she peered into the car.

"Forget it, don't bother calling me," Theo said with a wide smirk. "You're staying the night." He hit a panel of buttons, and all the car doors unlocked with an audible pop. The girl had Bodie's door open in no time at all.

"You made it! We've been waiting for you," she said. "Leg out, watch your head." Without any hesitation, she hooked a hand under his arm and pulled him right out.

"I'm good, I'm fine," Bodie managed to say, hopping awkwardly to stay off his bad leg while not running into her. She paid him little mind, but bent back into the car to grab his crutch out from the back seat. As soon as she was clear, Theo leaned way over and slammed the passenger-side door shut himself.

"Great, I'm out!" Theo yelled from the open window. Then he stomped on the gas and peeled out of the street with unnecessary haste. Gone, just like that. Traitor.

"What's he running from?" the girl said with arched brows. "He coming back for you?"

"Uh...I'll...probably call a cab."

"Not today you won't. I'll getchu a ride." She looked him up and down. Then her face, which seemed to be angled to have naturally fierce expressions, softened visibly. "Come on in." She tilted her head towards the party in invitation. Her earrings, large nested gold hoops , bounced against her cheek. Bodie followed her lead, and crutched his way into the house.

Taye almost couldn't keep her cool. In the light of day, Taye could now clearly see what Bodie had suffered in service of Lil' T. His busted knee was bound in a tight bandage. With the sleeves of his plaid shirt rolled up, Taye could see the ragged lines of reddening scabs running from knuckles to elbow on his right arm. The shiner that she had seen beginning to form outside the hospital last night had turned a mottled red-purple blotch spiked with yellow. And it wasn't just on his cheekbone; it spread all up his temple and straight through his hairline, like someone had taken a mallet to the side of his head.

At least it didn't appear that his knee was bothering him too much; he took the stairs with little hassle, using the crutch more like a precaution than a necessity. Taye held the screen door open for him to enter first. And that was when the assault began.

"HELLOOOooo there!" boomed one Uncle Jarad, who happened to be closest to the front entrance. He was a giant of a man in all directions whose girth was only matched by the overwhelming pressure of his personality. "The guest of honor is IN THE HOUSE! WOOOO HEEEEE! Will you look at that! Look at this young man! C'mere..." He wrapped a beefy arm around the young lifeguard's shoulders and pulled him further into the room. Futilely, Taye tried to intervene, convince her uncle to just let the fellow take it easy, but it was too late. The family horde heard. And descended.

Aunts, uncles, her parents, grandparents, cousins she'd never seen until today, they all swarmed around Bodie like piranhas around fresh meat, if piranhas could be huggable and toothless. More than a few in the crowd hollered long and hard for Lil' T, wherever she may be. They shook his hand, clapped him on the shoulder every chance they got, herded him onto the biggest, softest Lazyboy in the living room, and soon had him lying practically flat on his back with his legs levered up as high as the chair would allow.

"You eat dinner yet?" asked one person.

"Uh, no, not yet..."

"My God, get him a plate! What do you like, chicken? Chops?"

"Well-"

"Get him something off the grill! The salmon and clams should be ready-"

"Give 'em some of my potato salad!"

"Vegetables? You kiddin' me? Why you gonna fill his stomach with _vegetables_ when we got ten kinds of _meat_ over there!" At least three people broke from the group squabbling over how to feed him. The space was promptly filled with a squadron of Taye's irascible nephews. One of them had the nerve to place a beer right in Bodie's hand. Taye swooped in.

"Jordon, what on-Bodie, how old are you?"

"...Twenty..."

Whoa. Younger than she was by three years. She snatched the bottle from him. Replaced it with a plastic cup filled with lemonade. She left to put the beer back, and when she turned back around, she saw her uncle pulling the plastic cup out of Bodie's hand and replacing it with an identical cup that most certainly would not be filled with lemonade.

"_Uncle!"_ she croaked out, but the oversized man intercepted her determined march back to the Lazy-Boy.

"Man deserves a drink, T," he said with a wink. "Now look, there's your sister. Where you been? We're waitin' on you." Lil' T stood beside her with an oblong serving platter filled with food in her arms. Someone must have decided that the standard-sized paper plates simply weren't enough. Her uncle ushered the girl along, where she presented the platter to Bodie. He gaped at the steaming offering, but moved quickly to take the heavy load off her hands.

"Hey," he said with a small smile.

"Hi..." Lil' T replied, sounding uncharacteristically meek. Taye squeezed into the perimeter of the crowd that had gathered around. There was an awkward silence, as everyone waited for one or the other to say something more. But neither did. Bodie took the time to place his drink on a side table while he rearranged the platter on his lap. But Taye noticed that he was watching her sister with a careful, steady gaze. If Lil' T had been a lighter shade of brown, she would have flamed up as dark as a beet. As it was, she fidgeted and twitched until she finally burst out in one long breath,

"I'msorry'boutyourlegIwon'tdoitagainthankyouforsavingm e!"

Bodie was not gifted with any extra melanin genes. Under the scrutiny of fifteen strangers, he turned bright pink in two seconds flat.

"Oh my gawd, that is SO CUTE!" Taye's cousin Melanie, a petite, curvaceous college student with a penchant for bedazzled fake nails, ended her exclamation with a loud pop of her chewing gum. The poor lifeguard turned even redder, and everyone laughed out loud. Her mother, bless her, kneeled, wrapped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a hug. She must have said something to him, because he mumbled back, "I was just doing my job..."

Someone asked him if he was going to school. He jumped on the question like it was a lifeline. He told them how he was on a sports scholarship, about placing on the swim team and training for the next swimming championship. Based on Uncle Jarad's line of questioning and physique, Bodie guessed that he had played football seriously at some point, and mentioned that his father had been on the verge of a pro-football career before an injury took him out. His color returned to a normal, healthy bronzed tan, and soon a spirited sports discussion ensued that engaged all the men and drove away most of the females. Lil' T stayed behind, sitting on the floor with an awestruck look on her face.

Back at the buffet table, Melanie shook her head at Taye.

"Your sister's got it _bad_."

"He literally saved her life. And she's eleven years old. Of course she's got it bad."

"Mm-hmm. I might need to try drowning tonight. Could use a little savin' myself." Melanie smacked her gum and stared at Bodie's profile across the room with an indecent amount of intensity.

"Mel, you try drowning now, it'll be me fishing you out. That boy can barely walk much less jump in to save you."

"Boy? You call that a _boy_?" she said, incredulous. "You see those arms? Those shoulders? He might as well not bother with that shirt, cuz I can see right through-"

"NO! Absolutely not!" Taye exclaimed, not because she didn't agree but because she needed to cut her cousin off before anyone overheard. "He's our guest! You don't talk about guests that way!" Melanie shrugged.

"He's eye candy, and you know it."

"He looks like he got beat up."

"I know. Makes him look hot, right?" Taye almost burst out laughing but at the last minute twisted it into something that resembled outrage. Her cousin rolled her eyes at her.

"Don't give me that. He looks like he walked out of a Hollister ad. A little bruising is just what he needs to really..." She didn't finish her sentence but smiled in a way that spoke volumes. Taye did not want to go there. At all. For one thing, he wasn't even legal yet.

"Whatever," Melanie said. "More for me if you won't bite. You got everything for the bonfire tonight?"

"In the fridge downstairs. The extra cooler's down there too."

"I'll have the others help me haul it all in an hour or two."

"Why? I can take it." Her cousin didn't usually offer to help with anything. Melanie shrugged.

"Why not? I'm free. And so are those guys." She moved her chin towards a gaggle of younger men clustered around the sound system.

"By the way, you bringing _him_?" Melanie asked in an overly casual voice. Taye arched an eyebrow at her.

"Isn't one of those guys over there your boyfriend? The one who's tryin' so hard with the facial hair?" Melanie sniffed and studied her nails.

"He wishes he was my boyfriend. He's lucky we talk at all," she said dismissively. She picked up a fresh drink and walked off, swaying her hips to the heavy beat of the music. Taye let herself groove a bit as well, in between bites of a steak and shrimp kabob. The sun was setting now, and soon it would be prime time for a little beach party. Just a small group of friends and family...her crew and her life. What more could anyone need?

"Taaaye? Need some help over here!" called her mother from outside the patio. Taye shuffled on outside, winding her way past some older relatives who had started an impromptu dance party. Back and forth she went, handling one thing after another, along the way doing the meringue, a few steps of the samba, and quite a bit of Disco Fever each time she had to pass through the dancing crowd. By the time she was done with helping with the barbecue, her blood was pumped and ready for the bonfire. She couldn't wait to get down to the beach.

Her gaze wandered back to the living room. The cluster of people that was there originally had broken up. Now the living room and all its furniture had become the playthings of the little ones. The boys were playing a game that seemed to involve a lot of tackling and climbing over sofas. Past the backrest of the Lazy Boy, she also saw a small pair of feet kicking around in the air. That couldn't bode well. Off she went, to see what kind of damage was being wrought now.

"The hell you doin' to our guest-oh." Taye stopped short. Bodie was holding her little niece Aesha lengthwise in his arms and tipping her almost upside-down over the edge of the chair. She, in turn, was shrieking and swinging her arms and legs as if she were swimming or flying like Superman. Bodie noticed her and flashed a quick grin.

"Hey-oh, whoops-" He hoisted Aesha back into an upright position just as her two brothers tore through the spot she was dangling in, beating each other with paper towel rolls. She wriggled and tried to propel herself off the arm rest again, but he snagged her around the waist and held her back.

"Time out kid, let's get the blood back out of your head, okay?" he gasped as her feet trampled around some rather tender areas of his lap. He scooped her legs out from under her, maneuvered his legs off the chair's footrest, and deposited her on the floor. Then he popped up off the chair before Aesha could hurtle back on. He ended up right in front of Taye, with barely a foot of space separating them. His shirt was rumpled and pulled askew as if he had been wrestling, and his short fluffy hair stuck up in different directions.

"Hi..." Bodie said, smiling at Taye. He straightened up awkwardly as if he were in pain.

"Huh. Uhm, sorry about all this..." Taye waved her hand broadly over the living room area. He shrugged, still smiling a little lopsided, a little shy.

"It's family," he said. He tugged at his clothes and glanced about. Taye noticed his eyes matched the dark blue pattern of his shirt. She also noticed he was wearing a woven hemp bracelet that he hadn't been wearing earlier. He followed her gaze and glanced down at his wrist.

"Oh, your sister gave it to me. It was really sweet of her." He brandished the bracelet proudly, and held it up next to his face with a goofy grin. Taye remembered that Lil' T had struggled to make that bracelet several days earlier, and when she had finished, she had insisted on wearing it even though the course hemp thread irritated her skin. The knots in the bracelet were lumpy and malformed, but the lifeguard didn't seem to notice or care. In fact, she couldn't detect a single hint of sarcasm, not in Bodie's frank, open face nor in his voice.

"Bathroom?" he asked. She pointed it out. She watched him limp his way down the hall. While waiting, she saw a large platter sitting on the coffee table. It was empty save a pile of bones and some leftover barbecue sauce. Taye made a decision.

"Some of us got a little bonfire going down by the beach. Wanna come?" she asked when Bodie came out. His face brightened immediately.

"Are you kidding? I'd love to!" They headed for the door. While she pushed her feet into some cowboy boots, she yelled out to his sister.

"T! I'm heading out! Be back late!"

"Awww, I want to come with you!" shouted Lil' T. She rushed out of the kitchen, but Taye waved her to a standstill.

"Nuh-uh. You're grounded and you know it." Lil' T stomped her feet and groaned out loud. Quietly, Bodie offered a few parting words.

"Glad you're doing okay. And be careful… I might not be there next time." She nodded. Lil' T's eyes remained glued to him as he stepped out of the house.

"Thanks," she said, meaning every letter of the simple word.

Taye led Bodie down the street towards the sand, keeping a leisurely pace in deference to his injury. It was dark out now and starting to cool down, the perfect time for a fire. They walked in companionable silence for a little while. Then when they had reached the beach and were clambering over a sand dune, Bodie spoke up.

"You know…I don't know your name…"

"What? No way!" Taye reviewed her recent memories of the past two days. Surely she had introduced herself and her family? No matter, it was a matter easily fixed. She opened her mouth, but a loud voice behind her shouted out first.

"TAAYYYYEEE!" yelled out her cousin Melanie. A chorus of other voices chimed in. A new song kicked in from a boom box set up nearby. Taye turned to look down at Bodie from on top of the sand dune, a large cheeky grin on her face. She shrugged. No further explanation required.

Bodie skidded down the dune after Taye's rapidly retreating form. A dull ache had formed around his banged up knee but he ignored it. No way he was going to miss this. Already, people were starting to dance, swaying, twisting to the lively beat. And there was Taye, leaping right into the center without any hesitation. Like...like... His mind flailed.

She twisted and turned and snapped a knee one way while an arm snaked in another. Her head bopped, then her hips led. One moment graceful, the next moment provocative. Frenetic. Powerful. And wow. Coordinated. He'd never seen so many different movements chained together so perfectly except on TV.

Was this choreographed? Who danced choreography at a bonfire? No, this must just be her. Her and all her friends. One big dancing crew, all different personalities and body types, being awesome with one heart and mind.

He sank into the sand at the edge of the flickering light cast by the fire, watching, riveted. He almost didn't dare to blink. He wanted to catch every detail, all the figures that laughed and moved before his eyes. Taye, her brown skin bronzing in the firelight, spun and shouted out at him.

"Keep yo' mouth open like that, and all the sand on this beach is gonna end up in there!" To emphasis her point, she shook and stepped rapidly to the beat, sending puffs of sand out with every foot pound.

Bodie grinned wider, not caring how dopey he must look. He could watch her all night. He could watch all of them all night. One guy dropped to the ground and with one, sometimes two hands supporting him from underneath, began to thread his feet in and out, twisting his body back and forth in a complicated routine. Then in a flourish, he tried to execute something that looked like a gymnast flare. The shifting, uneven beach was poor material for that kind of maneuvering, however, and soon the dancer plowed face first into the sand. Laughter erupted from the group, and soon he was back up laughing too. Taye clapped him on the shoulder, then made her way back to Bodie.

"You think I could do that?" He said it without thinking. He didn't care that he could probably count the number of dance moves he knew on both hands. Or that the last time he'd danced was the Electric Slide at his sister's birthday party half a year ago. There was an energy here that was addictive, like a constant runner's high set to the tune of the latest pop hit.

"Huh." Taye appraised him with her vivid green eyes. "If you want it, you gotta do more than sit there askin' 'bout it." That was all the encouragement that he needed. Bodie bounded to his feet, all eager and loose-limbed like a puppy. She laughed out loud as if she couldn't help herself.

"Chill there, big guy, and just follow my lead." Taye positioned herself next to him. Then as the next song played, she led him along with a series of simple moves. One of the other girls he'd seen at the house quickly joined them on his other side. Then two others joined, and the next thing he knew, the whole group was shuffling together in an ocean-side line dance. It was hilarious, and Bodie was having the time of his life.

Taye watched Bodie as she led him from one move to another. She was impressed; despite favoring his leg earlier, she couldn't see any sign of pain from him now. She didn't want to push it too hard, but right now he was proving far less awkward than she had initially assumed. He followed her like a shadow boxer, and if he did make a mistake, he brushed it off with a laugh and nailed the next move.

She had kept it slow and simple at first, but gradually she picked up the pace, mixed up the combos, free-styled a little. Somehow he had a sense as to what moves were part of the routine, and what were her own ad libs. So when the current song reached the bridge notes, Taye broke routine with a girlish shimmy, Bodie whipped out a smooth salsa that Taye had seen her aunt and uncle showcasing earlier back at the house. Did he already know how to salsa, or was he a quick learner?

"Oh, what's this? Chickening out already? Don't have-" she wiggled again "-what it takes?"

"I'm sorry," he said, perfectly contrite. Then he nailed the hip-wiggling maneuver exactly as she had done it.

Catcalls erupted from her watching crew. Bodie burst into laughter, and executed the move again, but exaggerated it so much that he bounced off the rear of her voluptuous cousin hovering in his elbow space. The next thing she knew, the entire group was spinning imaginary hoola hoops, chest thumping and falling all over each other in an uncoordinated mess.

Eventually Bodie extricated himself from the crowd and eased himself into the sand. A few minutes later, Taye grabbed a couple cans of soda and joined him on the ground. She tossed him one can, and for awhile longer, they watched the others continue to dance into the night. Hours passed, until the bonfire had burned itself down to a few smoldering lumps of dusty charcoal. Whoever was still awake watched the rising sun paint the sky and sea a gorgeous palette of orange, pink and cheery yellow.

Taye drowsily glanced at Bodie, who was stretched out beside her, hands behind his head with his feet buried up to the ankles in a pile of loose sand. The pale grains covered both of them everywhere. They were stuck all up and down his long legs, and glued to his tanned skin around the sticky edges of the bandage wound tightly around his right knee. Taye kicked a blob of sand at him with her bare toes. He shifted his knee just in time to avoid the crumbling projectile. Now she knew he was still awake.

"You okay?" she asked, and pointed at his bandage.

"Mm-hmm."

They maintained a companionable silence for a few minutes more, until a high-pitched beeping tone interrupted out of the blue.

Bodie shifted in place, then sat up with a grunt. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and studied the illuminated screen for a moment. Then with a little effort, he stood up and shook sand and debris from his hair and clothes. He leaned to his right, testing, then stomped lightly a couple times just to make sure. He looked down at her with a happy warmth in his deep blue eyes.

"My friend's here. I gotta go," he said. He hesitated a beat, then added, "I'm glad I met you." Taye scrambled to her feet.

"You got my number, B. Don't be a stranger."

He stepped in, swift, and wrapped her in a tight bear hug, half lifting her off her feet. He smelled like the ocean, sand mixed with saltwater. Early beard growth, still invisible to the eye but rough to the touch, grazed her cheek.

"Tell your sister no swimming in the dark," he said as he pulled away. He looked tired, but content. With those parting words, he picked up his crutch and slowly walked away.

She watched his retreating back until he was out of sight. Wondered if she would ever hear from him. But she also acknowledged that even if they remained strangers in the future, at least for this night, they had been good friends.

She, too, was glad they had met.

And hoped that they would meet again.


End file.
